As activities conducted in high-temperature environments, such as well drilling, becomes increasingly complex, the importance of including electronic circuits for activities conducted in high-temperature environments increases.
In certain situations, it is useful to measure one or more properties (e.g., temperature or pressure) downhole and transmit the measured properties to a surface processor. It may be desirable to use different sensors without changing the composition of the drillstring in the borehole.
In other situations, it may be useful to provide communications between two or more nodes on a drillstring without providing a dedicated or permanent communications medium between the nodes.
Semiconductor based components, including Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) devices, may exhibit increased leakage currents at high temperatures. For example, conventional bulk-silicon CMOS devices may exhibit increased leakage currents, and hence decreased resistances, in response to an increase in the environmental temperature of the device.